Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Daily Devotional Thought--From the Old Testament

Jonah 2:10

And the LORD spoke to
the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Devotion

In the name of + Jesus.

Many of us have been familiar with the story of Jonah even
from our youth. It’s one of those Sunday
School stories. The prophet Jonah flees
from God because he doesn’t want to go to that terrible city of Nineveh. And Jonah had a good reason for not wanting
to go to Nineveh; Nineveh was the blood-thirsty capital of Syria, which was
known for conquering cities and making pyramids outside of the conquered city
walls by stacking the skulls of those they had killed in the process. Who would want to go to a city with that
reputation?

As the story goes, you remember Jonah fleeing, getting on a
boat, a terrible storm, and finally, Jonah offering to be thrown overboard to
calm the waters. But he’s really trying
to calm down God. His own guilt tells
him why the storm has come, and the reason is judgment; judgment on him. And he knows that the LORD will not stop
until Jonah is brought to justice for his disobedience.

So Jonah is thrown into the sea, where he expects to
die. Except that he doesn’t die. The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up
Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights. And
then, as the passage above tells us, “The LORD spoke to the fish, and it
vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”

For most of us, that is where the story has ended. Sure, our Sunday School teachers will tack on
a bit about going to preach to Nineveh, and having Nineveh be saved through
repentance and faith in God’s Word and promise.
But the emphasis for us is typically on the fact that Jonah lived in the
belly of a great fish for three days…and lived.
We’ve been taught that the point of this story is that God can do the
miraculous…even for people who are disobedient.

But how does Jesus teach this text? That’s right, Jesus actually did some
teaching on this text of Jonah, and teaches us what the story of Jonah is
really all about. You can find this
teaching recorded in Matthew 12:39-41 and Luke 11:29-32. Jesus mentions the “sign of Jonah” again in
Matthew 16:4. And what does he say is
the point of the story of Jonah? His own
death and resurrection!

Yes, Jonah was a real man, and there was a great big
fish. There was a city of Nineveh, and
its residents were evil enough to scare anyone away. Yes, Jonah was rescued by the hand of God,
and yes he would go to Nineveh to preach to evil people, who would repent and
be saved by faith. But the entire
historic event was intended to point us forward to one who would be “greater
than Jonah (Lk 11:29).

Jonah fled from sinful Nineveh. Jesus humbled himself, and took on the flesh
of the sinners to whom he was sent.
Jonah offered himself up to death to satisfy God’s judgment. That’s what Jesus did on the cross, but in
the case of Jesus, it wasn’t simply for the sake of the temporal life a few
crewmen on a boat—it was for the entire world, a once-and-for-all death for all
sinful people. Jonah was buried in the
belly of that great fish, and Jesus was buried in the tomb—and each were buried
for three days! After three days, the
LORD commanded the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land. After three days in the tomb, the Father
commanded to tomb to be opened, and for Jesus to come out, alive and well.

And all of it happened, in the case of Jonah and Jesus, so
that the Word of forgiveness, life, and salvation could be preached to those
who would die without it. For Jonah, it
would be the Ninevites. For Jesus, the
Gospel of His death and resurrection would begin being preached in Jerusalem,
extend to Judea, and finally, make its way to the ends of the world. Christ died for sin, was made alive in
victory, and He comes to bring that Good News to sinners who will also be
spared through repentance and faith in the one who is like Jonah, but even
greater!

Jonah is a wonderful story; it’s a miraculous story; it’s a
mission story which we can all relate to, for we all have turned from the call
of God. But more than that, Jonah is a
story that points us to the miracle of the one who would die and be raised for
all sinners. Jonah is chiefly a story
that reveals the redemption of Christ. Jonah
is most of all, a story that seeks to remind us of the one who is even greater
than he—Jesus Christ, the risen one!

Christ is risen! He
is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Prayer

Gracious God and
Father, thank You for redeeming me from sin, death, and the power fo the devil.
Move my tongue to glorify You in praise and witness. Amen (TLSB, p. 1482).